Withdrawal From Stelazine (Top voted first)

I have been on stelaine for 25 years with short breaks but I am trying to stop it and getting nasty withdrawal effects. I have reduced from 7mg to 3mg daily but have headaches anxiety and sense of unreality. I fell perfectly rational and know it is not the ill ness returning. I am seeking advice from someone who has managed to get of this drug or for any tips. I am planning to cut down 1mg per month but am already apprehensive about this.

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I was on strong doses of stelazine for a few yrs, up to 100mg per day, but I've now been successfully off of it for about 6 yrs now. The solution was a tricky one. Every time I'd try to cut back my mind's imbalance came back. The smallest dose tab of Stelazine is one mg, but it was not possible to cut back in one mg increments, even over an extended period of time. Fortunately Stelazine stays in the body for a week or two so if I took 5mg one day and then 4mg the next day it would average out ok and in effect it would be as if it was 4.5 mg per day. I had to keep track on my calendar because keeping track of it all got complicated. Every 3 months I did a decrease of amount. After I was down to 5 mg per day I had to get into get into the fractional average amounts per day after that. Then I went to 4.5 mg per day for 3 months, then 4.0 mg per day for 3 months, then 3 2/3 per day for 3 months, then 3 1/3 per day for 3 months, then 3 per day for 3 months, then 2 3/4 per day for 3 months, then 2 1/2 per day for 3 months, then 2 1/4 per day for 3 months, then 2 per day for 3 months, then 1 4/5 per day for 3 months, then 1 3/5 per day for 3 months, then 1 2/5 per day for 3 months, then 1 1/5 per day for 3 months, then 1 per day for three months, then 5/6 per day for 3 months, then 4/6 per day for 3 months....etc, you can see the pattern. The increments I cut down every 3 months had to get smaller as I got closer and closer to zero. This is because the mind has to adjust to increasingly subtle layers of conciousness opening up as dosage decreases. In the end it worked. Learning about yoga meditation and the philosophy behind it helped too. I had to keep marking my calendar every day to keep track. If you have questions let me know.

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Cindy, hi. See my previous email about how to decrease doses. In addition if the mind is going in a bad direction immediately switch what you're thinking about to something else. Anytime you hear voices do not pay attention to them even if it seems like some of it makes sense. Just totally disregard any of those type voices. If you wake up in the middle of the night because of some dream don't try to figure anything about the dream. Just immediately forget what was in the dream and switch the mind to something else. There are alternative medications to stelazine but I'm not sure which are safest for pregnancy. Always go forward positively and never look back to the past.

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Cindy, quite a few times I had tried to go off Stelazine and was unsuccessful. I'd get down to 5 mg then go to 4 mg and then try 3 and somwhere in there it would get messed up again. The weird anxiety. From my experience a person can never get off Stelazine by slowly reducing in 1 mg increments simply because it's too fast for the mind to adjust to. That is why I came up with the solution that worked, it was approved by my Dr. too. I told him I wanted to reduce in fraction-of-a-mg increments but they don't make Stelazine in fraction-of-a-mg increments and he told me that since Stelazine stays in the body for a long time so for example if I did 5 mg one day and then did 4 mg the next day it would average out and in effect I was taking 4.5 mg per day. I came up with the theory that the closer I got to zero mg the smaller I had to make the fractions of my decreases. It worked. I came up with the correct fractions decrease schedule. Every 2 months I did a decrease. The decrease schedule was like this: 5mg per day for 2 months, then 4.5 mg per day for 2 months, then 4 for 2 months, then 3 and two thirds mg for 2 months, then 3 and one third mg for 2 months, then 3 mg for 2 months, then 2 and three-fourths mg for 2 months, then 2 and a half mg for 2 months, then 2 and one-fourth mg for 2 months, then 2 mg for 2 months, then 1 and four-fifths mg for 2 months, then 1 and three-fifths for 2 months, then 1 and two-fifths for 2 months, then 1 and one-fifth for 2 months, then 1 for 2 months, then five-sixth's mg for 2 months, then four-sixth's for 2 months, then three-sixth's for 2 months, then two-sixths for 2 months, then one-sixths for 2 months, and then I was off of it.

I know it was long to type this out. But, bottom line is....the closer you get to zero mg's per day the smaller the cut-down amount must be because Stelazine operates on the subtle layers of mind and too rapid a change in the subtle layers of mind is what causes "craziness" so more caution is needed so things don't get worse. That is it actually. It was due to the fact that you had some change in the subtle layers of mind that happened to fast that got you into the situation to begin with. Same thing happened with me so I know.

I wish you well in whatever you choose but I've told you what works. Show this post to your Dr. and discuss it if you want and see what he says. My Dr. knew my plan and approved it.

Many other people have tried to decrease Stelazine the way you're trying and to my knowledge none of them have ever been successful. Ask your Dr. if he knows of anyone who was successful in decreasing like what you described.

Wishes of wellness to you,

Buster

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hi buster how are u doing. have not been online in a long time. well i am expecting and i am off the stelazine it has been 1 month now. i don't really have any bad withdrawal symptoms, except sometimes i get really breathless, that has always been a problem whenever i try to get off it. i am hoping that this will go away and i don't have to go back on it. so i am hoping that my baby will be healthy and well as the last time i saw my psychiatrist he told me he does not think that i need the stelazine anymore so i am confident i will do well and also my baby.

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Cindy, I'm doing fine but was wondering about you. If the mind starts going off in the wrong direction just switch the mind to something else like what to buy at the grocery store or something. Sometimes I do some breathing exercises as part of my yoga. I inhale deep and hold it for a few seconds and also I do those where I exhale and hold the breath out for about 8 seconds. This gives the mind the complete awareness of the full-in and full-out breath. Sometimes my breath seems to stop too but it does not bother me at all when it does. Scuba divers need to be able to hold their breath for a really long time to get certified I think. Sometimes when I go for a fast run and then slow down I get completely breathless and can't breathe so I keep walking ahead slowing and turn around clockwise slowly while I'm walking (not sure why that part helps) and let my mind vegetate without thinking about anything except maintaining and within a few seconds I'm back to normal again.
Cindy, wishing you the best with all that's going on.

Eddie, who is another poster in this thread, I'm realising that I did not completely answer one of your questions. It was every 2 months that I went to the next level in the particular increments I described.

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Cindy, after I posted a reply I reread your post again and I realized I forgot something. You are concerned that if you plan on going off the stelazine for 3 months to have the baby you might get sick again. This is true unfortunately. You would. Stelazine doses have to be decreased very slowly over a long time or else the mind cannot adjust fast enough to the change to stay stable. See my other post which shows the decrease rate which worked for me. Never cold turkey go from 3mg per day to zero per day. It can't work. If you see my decrease schedule I used and then decrease according to that every 2 months eventually you'd be off of it. But you have to keep the mind in a good space the whole time too.

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Stelazine has been discontinued here in Australia and i suppose around the world. I have been taking it for 25 years and recently the doctor gave me some other medication I did not like due to side effects. I went back and was given Seroquel. I googled it and did not like the side effects. So I did not take it and went cold turkey. Over the next 7 to 10 days i produced more saliva than i thought humanly possible. I felt a bit spaced out with red eyeballs, felt dizzy when changing direction quickly at work, restless tongue while awake, and chattering of jaws & teeth. I was drinking 4-5-6 liters of water a day and had some anxiety but not like it was broken. I sleep most nights. Not as bad as i thought. It's been 3 months now feeling better every day. Not all the way there yet but getting there. One good thing is i am starting to feel alive again and losing weight. I think if you want to get off medication you should have the right to try, but if you start feeling unwell again medication may be the answer. If Stelazine had kept being produced i would have gone to my grave taking it but it did not happen and i don't like change. Thanks for taking the time to read this.

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HI Buster, thanks for your reply. I am determined to get off the stelazine in order to have my baby. I take the 2mg and i have started staying without it for four days. I felt fine but just a little anxious. I went to my doctor and asked for advice on the best way to stop it and he said go ahead and just stop since i am only taking the 2mg. But i am going to take the 1mg maybe for 1 month and then every other day or two days and then stop and see how it goes. Am i going about it the right way Buster please share your advice.

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thanks for sharing this relevant information with me Buster and i will definately discuss it with my Doctor. I will print a copy and show it to him to hear what he says. I do hope i can be like u someday free and clear of Stelazine living a normal life and don't have to worry about taking those medications. And it is true when i was ill its like i felt i was going crazy and i really do not want to have a relapse so i am going to take every precaution. Thank u once again and we will catch up soon. Take care.

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Buster, I've been on 1mg stelazine for many years and have tried many times to go off, and have stayed off for a while but then feel the need to go back on.
When you got down to 1mg and less, did you just use a pill cutter? Do you think I should decrease 1/4mg at a time for 3 months each? It's just very difficult to cut the pill equally.

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I used to take Stelazine many years ago and finally realized I didn't feel any better on it, plus it made me sleepy all the time. After having taken it for several years, I decided to go off of is slowly, without telling my doctor. The main side effects were a headache that felt like a band around my head, which lasted for like 2 weeks. Also, I had extremely vivid dreams, very colorful, like visions or hallucinations. I'm sure the unconscious material in my brain that had been repressed by the medication was coming up. I also felt very anxious, high levels of fear, which I had to ride through like waves. These symptoms lasted several weeks at their height. However, it was totally worth it because I felt alive again, like I would rather feel all these things than be so drugged out by the medication. I have been drug-free since 1982, and so happy I never took any more of these drugs. Talk therapy, yoga, meditation, spiritual pursuits,etc have been my answer instead.

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I have been taking Stelazine for nearly 30 years and recently tapered off then completely stopped (at the suggestion of my psychiatrist). I have never regularly taken more than 3 mg per day, so in that sense, my experience may be different from others. I was initially prescribed it by a psychiatrist for anxiety and psychosomatic symptoms, including a feeling in my forehead of a "band" around. A trigger was often someone being intrusive and disrespecting my boundaries. That's just some background. Over the last ten years, again under the supervision of my doctor, I went down by 1mg at various points in time. I had been on 1 mg for the last few years prior to quitting completely. I took .5 mg over the last few months. For the most part, going Stelazine free has been uneventful; I have felt fine. In the last couple of days, however, I have had either a headache or a slightly uncomfortable feeling in my forehead, but I am hoping this goes away. I had this feeling earlier in my tapering journey, i.e., going from 2 mg to 1.5 mg, etc. I have been completely off Stelazine for about a month now, so I would think any unwanted reactions would no longer occur. We shall see...I did want to address the woman who wishes to have a baby. I am the mom of a 17 year-old daughter. I took 2 mg/day regularly throughout my pregnancy, and she is completely normal. Perhaps you could work toward reducing your dose, then see if your obstetrician might be more willing to endorse your staying on Stelazine. Good luck!!!

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Ah, that is the tricky part....the fraction of the mg. My doctor and I discussed this. He told me that Stelazine stays in the body a fairly long time so that if I took
5 mg one day then took
4 mg the next day then
5 mg the next day then
4 mg the next day and so forth that in effect I was taking 4.5mg's per day.
So, that is how. As you can imagine it gets trickier as the fractions get smaller so I had my calendar on the wall and I was marking it daily as I went along to ensure I did not goof up on my calculations. I know it is awkward and people who made the meds probably didn't think they'd ever need to make fraction-of-a-mg doses but then again they really don't since Stelazine stays in the body a long time.
Now, if you were down to 3 and one-third mg's that would mean you'd take
3 mg one day then
3 mg the next day then
4 mg the next day
so that over the course of that 3-day period you will have taken a total of 3+3+4=10 mg's and
10/3=3 1/3

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Hello Sandra,
The jitteriness usually goes away as you stop the stelazine. Mine took about 3 weeks. But the fatigue is still lingering. In my fourth week after stopping the drug. You may want to consult your doc about reducing the doses ASAP and coming off it altogether. Good luck. I can feel for you, I was equally anxious 3 weeks ago.

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I am on stelazine but it is now marketed under its generic name of TRIFLUOPERAZINE, i get my tablets every month and i am on 4mg per day for anxiety. Along with 300mg of Venlafaxine these two medications make life bearable and the intense, constant suffering from mental illness is reduced enough that I have enrolled back in university and am doing a masters course in philosophy and psychiatry. The meds do affect concentration and I do not have quite the same quick thinking ability as before, but I have a study mentor. The pharmacist does have to ring round for the tablets, the latest batch are produced by Mercury Pharma (generics) ltd, croydon, uk. Just google them for more details.

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The generic for stelazine is trifluoperazine. As far as I know they are the same and trifluoperazine is available by prescription everywhere. Just google it.
.

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I read what you said with a certain sense of sadness. Suppressing what comes from the unconscious solves nothing. I believe that there is much more going on in the so called disease called schizophrenia. It has taken me years to get close to the point that I can at last kick stelazine, a loathsome drug into touch that I was forced to take. As soon as I was able to I refused the other junk they wanted me to take. Unless you have personally been through what your Mother went through then with all due respect you know nothing about it. I am sure you are happy that she has a "normal" life but that does not mean she is happy about it at all. The word we use for what we call illness is dis-ease. When the unconscious reacts whether in a physical way or through the mind something is very wrong with the way we are living. I do not believe I experienced an illness I experienced a wake up call. I do not believe that much of what I experienced was in my imagination, I believe it was real. When I look at the insane world I live in it seems that many people are delusional precisely because they see the world as you do. I do not believe it was a breakdown. I believe it was a breakthrough.

Few people tell the people close to them exactly what they went through- they are afraid of judgement and the patronizing remarks about what a better life may be. There is only one way to really, really deal with what is given nonsense labels and that is to work through it, be guided by it and come out the other side. Use instincts to work out to come off the poison they forced you to take and reading what other people say and then forming your own opinion is part of it. One day you will be free as I am and if you do not deny what you experienced, learn from it, understand it. Not only will you be free of the drugs but amazing possibilities far beyond a normal life will open up as they have done for me.

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Did you ever try getting a pill cutter and taking .5 mg? That's what I did and now I've been completely off of Stelazine (generic Trifluoperazine) for a month. So far, things are basically normal (slight headache but am hoping that disappears). Good luck!

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Stelazine contains the active ingredient Trifluoperazine, this is most commonly used as an antipsychotic medication.

What you are experiencing is a very common effect from try to stop any type of medication that you have been on for a prolonged period. You may also experience rebound symptoms.

You have been on this medication for a very long period of time, it is probably unwise to try and stop by yourself, have you spoken to your doctor about an effective means to get off of it?

https:/­/­rxchat.com/­wiki/­Stelazine/­

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I have spoke to my doctor and psychiatrist. They just told me to reduce by one mg a month but didnt offer any other support

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